He may not recall the exact game, but West Forsyth head
football coach Shawn Cahill remembers the moment when he found the centerpiece
for this year’s rushing attack.

It was late in Cahill’s first season as head coach and depth
at the running back position was thin. The Wolverines opted to give Stephon
Bland, one of their receivers, some carries. On one run, with plenty of
defenders on him, Bland just wouldn’t go down, powering his 6-foot-1 frame
forward.

“I was on the headset with (offensive coordinator Chad)
Davenport and I said, 'That's our running back next year,’” Cahill said. “He
was just moving the pile. He's going to keep fighting all the time. He's got
that moxie thing about him.”

Bland, now a senior, made sure his coach’s confidence in him
was not unfounded against Alabama powerhouse Hewitt-Trussville last week,
rushing for 246 yards and two touchdowns and catching another. So far, Bland
has been one of the county’s breakout skill position players, even in his first
year running the ball on a full-time basis.

Bland played at receiver for the first two years of his high
school career, and Cahill kept him there in 2017, the coach’s debut season at
West. He and the rest of the coaching staff were just getting to know the
players and wanted to see what their strengths were during game action before
thinking about moving anybody around.

This season, though, West moved players not only to better
suit its system, but also to provide better visibility to potential colleges. At
this point, Bland has two games worth of good film at running back to give to
prospective recruiters.

“We feel like with what we would do, it would fit better and
help the kid out if they want to go play college football,” Cahill said. “We
try to put them in a place where they can help us and they're going to have a
chance to succeed at what they're doing.”

Despite him being a good receiver, West’s coaching staff
made the decision to move Bland, viewing him as a linebacker playing running
back due to his strength. He was thrilled but knew the challenges that came
with it.

West Forsyth junior running back Stephon Bland tries to break a tackle in the Wolverines' scrimmage against Creekview Friday, August 11, 2017.
- photo by Michael Chung
“I was really excited,” Bland said. “Last year, we were a
run-heavy team so I thought I'd get some more touches. I had to start being
more physical. It was a lot different, being in the backfield and getting the
ball a lot more. It was just a big adjustment.”

Bland worked in the weight room, bulking up from 200 pounds
to 210 over the offseason in preparation for his new role. During West’s season
opener against Camden County, he did what many new running backs tend to do –
run away from the mass of defenders and continually bounce outside the tackles.

But when watching the film from the opener, one of the
things the running back found out he had to do was slow down. Reading the holes
that his offensive line opens for him has been Bland’s biggest challenge so
far.

Game two did not start out well for Bland or for West as a
whole. Hewitt-Trussville returned the game’s opening kickoff for a touchdown,
and on the Wolverines’ first offensive play, there was less than nothing for
Bland to take advantage of.

“We forgot to block somebody, the biggest kid on the field,
and he just runs into the backfield and kills him,” Cahill said. “It would have
been very easy for him to go, ‘This isn’t a lot of fun.’”

Eventually, though, Bland began to see the holes he
patiently waited for, and the yards he gained helped West to its thrilling
near-upset.

Despite their 0-2 record, the Wolverines are confident in what
they have going forward, thanks in part to what happened on the field last
week. As a team captain, Bland’s leadership role has been more apparent, and on
his current trajectory, his influence will only get larger.

“It felt good,” Bland said of his performance against
Hewitt-Trussville. “It gave me some confidence. It gave our O-line more
confidence, because (on) their D-line, they had some guys. We felt like we
really can run through them.

“I feel like if we go out there and play like that every
game, we’ll be fine.”